


You Have Always Worn Your Flaws Upon Your Sleeve

by hummingrightalong



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, Grant is not Hydra, M/M, Season 1, Team Bus - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 14:01:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10164515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hummingrightalong/pseuds/hummingrightalong
Summary: Leo gives Grant a gift that brings them closer





	

It's just a stupid little thing.  
It didn't mean anything, and it's not like his boyfriend ever brought anything like this up aloud. Maybe it's for someone else, Grant lies to himself as he awkwardly holds a stupid fucking drugstore-counter-impulse-buy pinwheel. Hands full, he wonders if he can still manage to operate the button for the window. He's already sick of the cheery blue and silver spinning novelty. He'll keep right on acting like he didn't see the .org address for 'child abuse prevention and awareness' down the side.  
A solid grip would keep that right out of sight until the toy could be discarded in Fitz's bunk and forgotten under scraps of wires, metal, and japanese candy wrappers (seriously the man is a fiend).  
That can be, and so far seemingly is, the last of the subject. The specialist silently reminds himself with a clenched jaw and the slightest, slightest of nods.  
The nod was for the coffee Fitz had brought along with the stupid thing. *Thanks for already remembering how I take my coffee*, no thanks for remembering other things Grant wishes Leo didn't know.  
So far it had been a pleasure to find themselves on an impromptu assignment for Phil. Friendlier territory, very cooperative witnesses, and a crisis that miraculously was solved in a couple of days without a firefight/running for their lives/sandwich murdering.  
This also meant that the time allotted for said assignment turned to time they could burn as a couple. Lots of making out, vague promises to really make this work when the whole Team Bus assignment finally came to an end some day. They both hoped they weren't lying to one another.

//A (very) dim recollection of a drunken late night in the lab, a question from Fitz followed by the scientist wincing as Grant straightened his back and clenched the fist of his free hand. He'd taken another swig off his beer, and before he'd known what he was doing, he'd spilled more about his childhood than he'd ever done in mandatory S.H.I.E.L.D. psych check-ins (S.H.I.E.L.D. felt that, considering how fucked up the job was, they ought to keep track of that sort of thing- and they did, much better than, say, the military).  
Leo had listened, had comforted in the way another man might, then made Grant feel a little guilty for how defensive he'd been at first.  
Leo admitted that he had to make a break from his family as well. Turns out his mom was great...but dad...well, his arm had been broken so many times he had to be extraordinarily careful with it now.//

It's remembering how open Leo was, how supportive in a way that allowed both of them to keep their pride, that keeps Grant from reacting as he usually does any time someone gets close to the truth of his past. He'd told Skye a PG version of it once, to help inspire her, to relate to somebody else that had a tough time growing up.

The specialist risks a look at his boyfriend. Fitz's turn to drive, and he'll get distracted sometimes- often- talking to the car (sometimes this model talks back). Grant experimentally blows a little on the pinwheel. He'll pretend he was trying to cool his coffee if Leo so much as appears to have noticed. He certainly doesn't seem to.

It's sort of soothing, watching the metallic blue and silver spin together. The specialist even cracks a smile when the vehicle speeds up and the wind blows in from the open windows, making the thing spin impossibly fast as long as he holds it at just the right angle. Soon it seems completely foolish for ever being mad about the tiny gesture. 

Neither man says a word when the seemingly insignificant thing goes up in the bunk they've begun sharing. It's tacked right next to the door, reminding a man that he may have been alone, but now he's not. That trusting somebody other than himself could feel better than anything else in the world. That nobody should have to face their demons alone. 

Leo had been the one person who was there for him when he didn't even know he needed it. Was always doing those little things that meant so much. The scientist had been working so hard to help Grant heal, and to make this relationship work, that nothing was more important now than to give back as much as he'd been getting.


End file.
